Grandson of New York crime boss Gotti gets prison for drug sales

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John J. Gotti, the grandson and namesake of New York's infamous "Teflon Don" mob boss, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in prison after pleading guilty last month to selling oxycodone, an opioid prescription pain medication, prosecutors said.

Gotti, 23, was arrested in August along with eight other people in a sweep that recovered more than 850 oxycodone pills and more than $250,000 in cash. As part of his sentence, Gotti was also ordered to forfeit the seized cash.

Gotti was arrested last June after a long-term investigation that included bugging his car, which allowed investigators to record him describing an oxycodone-selling operation that generated $1.6 million a year, authorities said.

After his release from prison, Gotti will remain under court supervision for another five years, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

The cases of the eight others arrested with Gotti are pending in court.

The elder Gotti, who earned the nickname "Teflon Don" after repeated acquittals at trial in the 1980s, died in prison of cancer in 2002. As the head of the Gambino crime family, Gotti was one of the country's most powerful Mafia bosses before he was sent to a federal prison in 1992 for life.